Do you want to display random posts in WordPress? Displaying random posts gives your users a chance to discover more of your content. In this article, we will show you how to easily display random posts in WordPress.
Why and Where to Display Random Posts in WordPress
By default WordPress lists your blog posts in reverse chronological order (from newest to oldest). This allows users to see your latest posts first.
However, most users will not get to see your older articles. If you have been running your site for quite some time now, then your older articles will not be prominently displayed anywhere.
One way to overcome this is by making internal linking a habit. Linking to your older articles in new posts will help users discover them. It will also increase your pageviews and improve your SEO score.
Another way around that is by displaying random posts in your sidebar. This way your users will get to discover posts that they would not see otherwise.
Having said that, let’s see how you can easily display random posts in WordPress.
Video Tutorial
If you don’t want to watch the video tutorial, then you can continue reading the text version below:
Method 1: Display Random Posts in WordPress with a Plugin
This method is easier and is recommended for most users.
First thing you need to do is install and activate the Advanced Random Posts Widget plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, you need to visit Appearance » Widgets page. You will notice a new widget labeled ‘Random Posts’ under the list of available widget.
You need to add this widget to a sidebar. See our guide on how to add and use widgets in WordPress.
Now, you will be able to see the widget settings. The default options will work for most websites, you can just click on the save button.
Advanced Random Posts Widget is a powerful plugin with tons of customization options. You can select different post types, show excerpt, show thumbnail, and skip posts you don’t want to show, or displays posts from specific categories or tags.
For more experienced users, the plugin also allows you to add custom before and after HTML, and your own custom CSS as well.
Don’t forget to click on the save button to store your widget settings. You can now visit your website to see random posts widget in action.
Method 2: Display Random Posts in WordPress Using Code
This method requires you to add code to your WordPress theme files. See our guide on how to copy paste code in WordPress.
First thing you need to do is add this code in your theme’s functions.php file or a site-specific plugin.
function wpb_rand_posts() {
$args = array(
'post_type' => 'post',
'orderby' => 'rand',
'posts_per_page' => 5,
);
$the_query = new WP_Query( $args );
if ( $the_query->have_posts() ) {
$string .= '<ul>';
while ( $the_query->have_posts() ) {
$the_query->the_post();
$string .= '<li><a href="'. get_permalink() .'">'. get_the_title() .'</a></li>';
}
$string .= '</ul>';
/* Restore original Post Data */
wp_reset_postdata();
} else {
$string .= 'no posts found';
}
return $string;
}
add_shortcode('wpb-random-posts','wpb_rand_posts');
add_filter('widget_text', 'do_shortcode');
This code simply creates a function that displays 5 random posts. It then creates a shortcode so that you can easily display random posts anywhere on your site. Lastly, it enables shortcodes to be executed inside WordPress widgets so that you can use shortcode inside a text widget.
Now you can display random posts inside a WordPress post, page, or text widget using the shortcode [wpb-random-posts].
That’s all, we hope this article helped you learn how to display random posts in WordPress. You may also want to see these 12 WordPress sidebar tricks to increase pageviews.
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Michael says
Is there an easy way to cache the results for a certain period of time instead of randomizing every time? Maybe like refresh once every 24hrs to reduce lessen the load on DB calls every time?
WPBeginner Support says
For that functionality, you would want to check with the plugin’s support for if it is available.
Admin
Marvin Duru says
Please, i tried adding the shortcode on a specific position on my website not inside the post in PHP but the Random post section did not display but only show my text “[wpb-random-posts]”.
What should i do?
WPBeginner Support says
When using the block editor you would want to ensure you’re adding it using a shortcode block.
Admin
Zeynep says
Thanks the code works just fine. I changed the first page in my wordpress site to index.html, what do I need to run [wpb-random-posts] on my html page? My English is a bit weak, I hope you understand me.
WPBeginner Support says
You would need the page to be a WordPress page for a WordPress shortcode to work.
Admin
Elle says
How would you go about styling this? I’m getting confused as to how I would control the design of this, i’ve never worked with styling PHP.
WPBeginner Support says
It would depend on the styling you’re wanting to add for what needs to be done. You can add a class in the html code to give you something to target.
Admin
Maria Cristhiane Amorim says
Hello! Can I do this in a listing?
WPBeginner Support says
You would need to clarify what you mean by that
Admin
Rob Packenham says
Thanks for the helpful article.
I have a question — my WordPress site pages include a sidebar with a random post (excerpts) widget.
A problem is that Google indexes the pages and ‘sees’ the random post excerpts as content for the page. So in Google search, a page can show up as matching a search term only because one of the random post excerpts on the page matched the term (not the main content of page).
But, when a user clicks on the link in Google search results they will see the page with a different set of random post excerpts in the sidebar — not the post excerpt with matching text. So it looks to them like a bad search.
Ideally i’d like to exclude the random post excerpts from Google index ie hide them from Google, but that doesn’t look possible (?).
If you have any suggestions I’d appreciate it! Thanks.
Jun Enriquez says
Tried this & it destroyed my site, how do I reset this?
http Error 500
Please help
Thanks
Jun
Yin says
Thanks a million for sharing this. I used another plugin for random post that no longer works. Then I find your site and have installed the plugin. It works like a charm.
Lisa says
Hi, and thanks for this helpful tutorial!
Can you tell me what would be the piece of code to add to display random posts that are in a specific category? My theme doesn’t display a sidebar so I can’t use the plugin and it already has a random posts display under each article, but posts from all categories are included and displayed then. I tried to go check the theme code and add ‘post_category’ => ‘name-of-the-category’, but it doesn’t work. Any idea?
Raff says
Hi! I just want to ask what if i want to change random post every week or any given time. For example, i display a set of random post, it will not change until 7days or any given time. Thanks!
Abhimanyu Kashyap says
Thanks a ton, I was able to display random posts. I changed the no of posts to 1 to display 1 random post. Is there a better way to do it?
I would also like to find out how I can use a variable instead of post type and enter one where I place the short code eg – [wpb-random-posts(‘post’)].
How can I achieve this ??
devender says
thanks shearing this code its very helpful……..
Nate says
Setting posts to orderly => ‘rand’ is a half-measure. Sure, the post displays ‘randomly’, but like DI SEKITAR mentioned above, what use is displaying one random post if it’s going to be the same random post every time someone visits the site?
Nate says
Meant to say ‘orderby’ … I was spellcheck’d
smehsan says
Sorry, But the string was not working and i just make the string global and it works fine now.
global $string;
Marléne Rose Shaw says
Thanks for this great tutorial. Is there some way I can get the shortcode and then display the random posts beneath the content in a page instead of the sidebar??
Katherine says
JAYKAY
To exclude the current post add
‘post__not_in’ => array(get_the_id())
to the query.
So your args will now be:
$args = array(
‘post_type’ => ‘post’,
‘orderby’ => ‘rand’,
‘posts_per_page’ => 5,
‘post__not_in’ => array(get_the_id()),
);
JAYKAY says
It works fine with this piece of code.
Thank you KATHERINE
di sekitar says
really cool information,
I tried used plugin that you mention, but i have big question.
How to make random post different for every visitor or device that visiting my site?
because i try visit my site using other notebook and smartphone, but the random post from those 2 device is same.
JayKay says
Hi,
Advanced Random Posts Widget is a really good plugin, but i have a problem.
How could you exclude the current/active post when you display a random post ?
Is it possible to fix this ?
The problem is the same with the method 2 code.
Harry Stoddart says
Use the “Offset” variable to skip the latest X posts.
Khalil Sillah says
As a beginner what list of matrial would I need to learn wordpress
Ahm Clex says
A PC, WiFi and dedication. That’s all you need to learn anything this days.
Gaurav Khurana says
thanks for this. i was always thinking about this, Since by default the latest post are visible on the home page itself. Thanks for this will definetely use this plugin